I used to be based in Boston. When a good snowstorm would hit, I would trudge to the hanger (it was a helicopter unit) and usually find my duty for the day involved getting a HMMWV, some snow shovels, and hot chocolate from the chowhall, then going out and digging out Medical or some other important building.

One year, we received a good blizzard. Along with another recent snowfall, I think we had something like 44 inches on the ground. It was impressive. You couldn't even see cars and drifts were taller than me.

Every year about this time my co-workers start wishing for a white Christmas, this is Southern California so to see snow you have to drive up into the mountains, which they do, but only on the weekends. You can park in a plowed lot, ride the lift to the top of Mt. Baldy, play in the snow, build a snowman and do all that fun stuff, if you get cold you can go into the restruant and get a nice hot meal. when you're done you can drive home down a plowed road to your snow free home in a snow free community. They think I'm some kind of Scrooge when I say that a white Christmas is fine, snow should start about 9:00 PM on the 24th, be on the ground through the 25th, and be gone by 4:00 AM on the 26th. But then they've never had the fun of shoveling the walk to get to the driveway so you can shovel that out so you can get to your car, with snow tires or better yet chains and then drive to work, where if your job takes you outside at all you can freeze. Of course maybe its just me.

Logged

Science claims that hydrogen, because there is so much of it, is the building block of the universe, I dispute this, there is plenty more stupidity, and that is the building block of the universe. Frank Zappa

Just rain in Alabama, we've resembled England the last few days. Damp and lots of it. Now it's a little colder. supposed to be in the 60s this weekend when the next batch of rain hits. We're overdue for a paralyzing freezing rain or snow event here (which for us is more than three inches, we're snow wimps). Hope we dodge a bullet again, people just don't do well in snow here, I'm a little more steeled to it after my winter in DC with 14 inches of the stuff, but even I have gotten soft after seeing so little snow these past few years.

dean, when I remember that the season are the opposite in the southern hemisphere, and that Christmas happens in summertime for you guys, I always think of Bizarro World from the comics and cartoons. That's what I get for being so northern hemisphere-centric. Gotta work on that.

Are the bushfires a major problem every summer, or just during drought times? In Australia you guys have had summer drought problems for several years now, am I right?

The fires make the news in the US sometimes, just as the forestfires in the American West during the summer tend to become bi news when there are enough of them or if they threaten populated areas or certain national parks and lots of (un)pretty pictures of trees or houses burning can be shown on the news. Some are due to lightning strikes, but sadly many are due to arson or careless or irresponsible behavior.

Just rain in Alabama, we've resembled England the last few days. Damp and lots of it. Now it's a little colder. supposed to be in the 60s this weekend when the next batch of rain hits. We're overdue for a paralyzing freezing rain or snow event here (which for us is more than three inches, we're snow wimps). Hope we dodge a bullet again, people just don't do well in snow here, I'm a little more steeled to it after my winter in DC with 14 inches of the stuff, but even I have gotten soft after seeing so little snow these past few years.

dean, when I remember that the season are the opposite in the southern hemisphere, and that Christmas happens in summertime for you guys, I always think of Bizarro World from the comics and cartoons. That's what I get for being so northern hemisphere-centric. Gotta work on that.

Are the bushfires a major problem every summer, or just during drought times? In Australia you guys have had summer drought problems for several years now, am I right?

The fires make the news in the US sometimes, just as the forestfires in the American West during the summer tend to become bi news when there are enough of them or if they threaten populated areas or certain national parks and lots of (un)pretty pictures of trees or houses burning can be shown on the news. Some are due to lightning strikes, but sadly many are due to arson or careless or irresponsible behavior.

Bushfires are always a problem, and we've been droughting [is that even a word] for the better part of 4 or so years now. It goes off and on, but it's definitely a step down from ten years ago when it rained constantly in winter. Now that's a miracle.

This year's fires are definitely one of the worse ones, mainly due to the particularly dry winter we just went through. Sad thing is, most of that land won't grow back properly in my lifetime, I imagine, and will be just plains instead of the forest areas they once were.

Oh and we are very much Bizarro world down here. Didn't you know that? In fact, I'm sure there's an evil bizarro twin for each of you down here right now, just waiting for the chance to usurp you 'topsiders'.